It all starts with a dream… No… literally it started with an actual morning dream! I dreamed that I was having a fight my dad about not letting me get out of the house. It’s been 6 months since I was at home, being a couch potato and even my dreams were telling the me to get out. So, I wake up on a sour note and go sit on the PC and lock my room, like any teenager would do (I ain’t a teenager!). Dad comes up as asks me what`s wrong, why am I sitting here? A little context: since last 6 months I have been trying to convince my dad to let me go, but he always says no. So, I told him today, I am frustrated, staying in home with nothing to do. (I am not a vella, I am waiting for my joining letter… which is super delayed). He says in a flicker, “why don’t you go out?” I guess he knew that the pot was about to steam out! Ha ha. and, he never says no when I am serious. Thus, the approvals were received.
After 4 days of intense research on different places- Gangtok, South India, Sandakphu, Himachal, Rajasthan, etc. I narrowed it to one. I had heard a lot about this place and thought this was the perfect place where I can get away from the world of socializing and everybody I know. Spiti is a place located high up in the Himalayas, almost isolated from the rest of the world. No internet, no phone, no connections. I was so intrigued with this, I was thinking of running up to the mountains and never come back. Maybe I`d find some yeti or the Inhumans there and spend my life with them.
So, the money was paid, and the tickets booked. My first stop was at Delhi, where I came 3 days early as I had to meet my friends. I have lived in Delhi and that place almost feels like home. Except for the pollution. Man, Delhi pollution sucks. The last time I came in near Diwali, I thought I was in a dystopian city. This time, I met Dhananjay, we went to a famous bar in CP and there we had Goa Kings – beer. That stuff was good and later I got the meet the owner over LinkedIn accidentally and it was good bonding topic, the co-incidence! Then I went to my college mates and feasted like hell. There I learned the actual reason of why I O. D`ed 2 years ago.. ha ha. (its related to Bob Marley).
The day of my departure arrived. I could finally get away from the humans. Reaching Himachal Bhavan was a tricky part. There I met my first teammate, Anjali Tomar, while tucking in the luggage. A lively, almost my age, girl with a huge… I mean huge travel experience. As usual I was not very inclined to listen too much, but she was of the talkative sorts and stringed in a lot of conversation in a short time. Apparently, she was from Chennai and lived 2 lanes next to where I used to live 3 years ago. Man, what luck. The world is a small place. But, please someone stop this girl from talking. (but I was thankful, there was someone I know now)
The bus started, and it was a cozy ride. I was expecting to meet other for the trip too but didn’t find any. Thankfully, Anjali who was sitting in front of me was not motivated to talk to me and I could put my headphones and get lost in my timespace folds (see theory of relativity). A lot of good stuff happened in that moving bus. My much-awaited offer letter came, and my work location would be Hyderabad, another new city. Raghav was happier than me to know that I was coming to his place. I was happy that they raised the package, the icing on the cake. So, with all the goodies and listening to my new playlist I slept well most of the way to Shimla.
The next day we landed in Shimla early morning and it was raining cats and dogs. Why does Shimla rain every time I come here? (Same shit happened 13 years ago.) We ran quickly to the traveler parked there and I was looking forward to meeting the people I would be travelling with, what kind of folks they would be? will they have weed? will there be anyone escaping a police investigation? (why did I think that !!)
So, we got in and Anjali and I sat together. We had 2 girls sitting in the front and a lady sitting next to me. The car was waiting for the last passenger and there was an awkward silence. Thankfully Anjali was there, and she was a good company to avoid that situation. After a few minutes of silence Boom! There was a blast. A girl enters the bus with a big smile and a cheerful “Hi!!”. Meet Anchal – the savior from the land of Apples. She was a mid-aged lady with a funny sense of humor. She was the ice-breaker for the lot. So, we exchanged greetings and I got to meet the rest of the crew. Apart from Anjali and Anchal from Dehradun, there was Santana (not Carlos Santana) and Ayushi from Bangalore and Smayukta from Coorg(dayum!).
For some time, I really felt awkward with only girls around me. Where the boys… there were supposed to be more boys…Oh! they went in the other car. So, I put in my headphones and slept off. I was hungry, and I didn’t want my motion sickness to kick in. I didn’t even open my eyes to gaze the beautiful cloud play outside as we scaled the Himalayas. Till 10, I slept. Then we stopped at a place for breakfast. There we met the other half of the people I would be going with. These were 5 boys from a boarding school accompanied by 2 teachers, who were a jolly couple, who lived, married and worked together. Ah! what a pleasant love story. Its these successful love stories that never get told, only the shitty ones where the completely incompatible lovers die… Good Ridden!!
They were there for a school project in Spiti. Meeting them took me back to my first school trip to Shimla, Kullu and Manali which was my first date with the mountains and a first of many other things (Wink!)
So, I went back to my party and we had Aloo Parathas. Finally, we all got something in stomach and started opening up. There, I learned that Ayushi and Samyukta had just finished their school and came for their solo strip and social work here. I was amazed to see these kids. At such an age they have worked for different NGOs across continents and they can travel anywhere without a second thought, WOW!! The kind of maturely they had and the way they conducted themselves portrayed some disciplined and sincere lifestyle. When I look to my own sisters- those two won’t even slide of the sofa at that age ha ha and neither would I have thought that I would be allowed to go anywhere on my own, then again, I was a restless monkey back then.
After having good food and resolving a 1-hour long ordeal of Anjali`s money stuck in the ATM, we started once again. This time I was well feed, finally had my social battery full and was ready to enjoy the ride. The sightings outside the window were equally mesmerizing. The lush green mountains with the Sutlej flowing right beside me, felt like I was travelling towards heaven, while Led Zeppelin was playing “The Stairways to Heaven” in my ears. Apparently Anjali and I got a similar taste in classic rock music. That made me think that maybe she`s not as annoying as I thought. So, we started chatting and she told me about her trek to Chaddar lake and how she went with her ex on a 5-day trip to Sri Lanka and dreamt to go on a Thar Desert safari on a motor bike, how her parents wanted to her to marry because she had long come of age, she has been protesting because she didn’t want to marry and wanted to set her own life travelling and enjoying everything till she lives. And the best part of it was, she was living her dream, one trip at a time, one month after the other. She had things sorted out, she knew how and when to make use of the opportunity. If you take out her chatter box, that girl was an amazing specimen to what a person can do when he/she sets the will to do it. And I thought those things only happen in movies and people who just got shitload of money and real life was able to do it. But here she was, proving that everything is a myth ready to be broken, you just need to work to achieve it and you can get it.
The next stop, we were going to meet Pappuji!
We stopped next for lunch at some random village. The driver said to go and eat that a small dhaba or rather an open roadside stall congested with people. We 6 sat in a cramped table and got a thali with hot curries and roti. The food tasted heavenly and we ate a lot. The person serving us was a 60 something man with a face the reflected the hardships that he has faced in life, but for everything you ask he would give you with a smile and he would call it “seva” be it “ek aur roti ki seva” or “extra rajma ki seva”. He came here some 30 years ago and with his family, ran that shop since then feeding the hungry tourists with the food which they cooked with all their love and served with piety.That made their lives fulfilled. Living at such a remote place with hardly any modern facilities, these people did simple jobs and were at peace with it. These are the numerous stories we pass by in our rush to attain more and more. That food was proof that love, like electricity, can flow from one person to another just with the right intent and we could feel his big heart in his food. There are many such Puppuji`s on many unknown valleys and they are the candle of goodness in this world. We left that place with a food filled stomach and a love filled heart, knowing that Pappuji will keep spreading his love one “roti ki seva” at a time.
The team again started with a full stomach and I went back to my headphones. Love seemed to fill the valley with green trees, yellow shrubs, the twisting and turning roads ,flowing next to the river, and a distant snow caped range in sight. We were reaching the mountains. The ride was smooth and all of us dozed off to a sweet slumber.
The next time I woke up, we were in Rekong Pio, in Kalpa district, the last point to which transport buses go. It was beautiful valley, lined with nascent apple trees, which would look splendid with red juicy apples on them by December. There, we stopped at two different hotels, one for the girls and one for the guys, with a direct view of Kiran Kinnaur mountain range from the windows. I was lucky to see the last light touch the white peak and radiate into the vast blue clear sky. It looked like a huge candle was lit, that lighted the whole valley underneath.
That night I got a room to myself because the boys wanted to stay together and party, probably. I was happy to see that somethings never change with time and glad to have experienced the same with my friends. I finally got a bath after 2 days and got to sleep in a fluffy bed with thick blankets. Though we hardly did any manual work, the travelling sure did make us yearn for a deep sleep. Meanwhile the weather had completely changed from hot in Delhi to humid and windy in Shimla to chilly in Kalpa. The next day we would be entering the Spiti Valley…
To be continued. . . . . .
From sands to stars. . . 
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